Beyond Traditional Math

Bring all of your geometry, perimeter and area lessons together with this engaging no prep real world math project! Every time I do this with a class, the students BEG for more time to work on it. This is a highly engaging project for your early finishers, for enrichment, gifted students or to use for a whole class end of the year math activity. All you need to do is print the tasks and get them started. All 10 tasks are open ended to help you differentiate for all the learners in your classr

Fractions (and especially fraction equivalence) are always so abstract, until you connect them to the real world -like cooking! This is such a fun way to explore equivalent fractions. This resource will help students think critically about equivalent fractions. Recipe Disasters will strengthen your student's skills with benchmark and equivalent fractions with real world problem solving! Students are given a problem page with lots of reading that includes a recipe, and then a problem to solve. T

Prepare your students for state testing in a highly engaging way with the click of the print button. These challenging story problems are perfect for fast finishers, enrichment for the whole class or targeting your gifted students. This resource is by far my best seller, because it instantly engages the students in meaningful problem solving. The problems are deep, multi-step and require perseverance. You will notice that the Standards for Mathematical Practice are embedded within these proble

Finally, no more stressing about what students should do for independent work time! This math journal just needs to be printed for instant differentiation, giving you open ended math investigations. You will have activities for students who have already mastered what you've taught (enrichment), or for early finishers. The best part is there is no prep, just print and you're ready to go. These are also fantastic prompts to promote student to student discourse. Open ended problems encourage stude

In this no prep resource students must reason about beginning fraction concepts: identifying fractions, equal parts, fractions on a number line, comparing fractions, equivalent fractions, benchmark fractions, numerators and denominators and fraction bars. All you have to do is print the puzzle, students cut them out and sort the statements into true or false categories. This is aligned to the third grade common core state standards, but would also be appropriate as a review or practice for fourt

Looking for a great way to incorporate environmental issues and earth day ideas into your lesson plans?  Go beyond a nature walk, coloring sheets and school grounds cleanup with these impactful classroom activities.   The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an earth day activity that focuses in on the devastating impact of plastic bags, trash pollution, single use plastic, and plastic bottles in our waterways and oceans.  This earth day lesson plan is cross curricular, with a focus on reading, writin

If your students are struggling to memorize and learn geometry vocabulary, this project will give them real life application, committing those tricky terms to memory! Once students design, draw and build their golf course, there is no need for geometry flashcards anymore, the experience leads to deep learning of the vocabulary. In this math project students design mini golf course holes on paper, buy supplies, and build their design as a model to help them memorize all that tricky geometry voca

Practice finding the area of regular and irregular rectangles and composites figures with these no prep true/false puzzles. These are great tasks that will supplement your area and perimeter unit lessons. The puzzles get progressively more difficult allowing you to differentiate for your class. The puzzles begin with regular rectangles with grid lines. Then, they move to irregular composite figures where the grid lines disappear. It's a great way to teach area and have them practice with area m

Do you need math warm ups, centers, or early finisher activities for place value or rounding? There are 10 no prep puzzles are easy to print and just hand out for instant engagement. In this activity, students decide for themselves whether six statements are true/false about a given puzzle. You can then have them engage in math talk to defend their thinking, and critique the reasoning of others. Why work on reasoning activities?The Standards for Mathematical Practice put a focus on the thinking

In these no prep true/false multiplication puzzles, students practice multiplication concepts using repeated addition, equal groups, arrays and multiplication expressions. These are awesome tasks for when students need enrichment, or to use in a small group for your students who might be struggling with the concepts. These also work great as math warm ups, centers, or early finisher activities! There are 10 no prep puzzles are easy to print and just hand out for instant engagement. In this act

Finally! Get all of your students up to speed with equivalent fractions without tears, blank stares or needing to use tricks. These 10 thoughtful no prep puzzles to bring all of your lessons on equivalent fractions together, connecting all different representations! All you need to do is print, and the students cut and solve. Every time I do this with a class, the students BEG for more puzzles. This is a highly engaging task for your early finishers, for enrichment, gifted students or to use f

If you'd like to focus on problem solving in your classroom, you'll have 90 multiplication and division practice problems (simply print and bind) so that you can use them all year long. Whether you are just learning multiplication or would like to use them as multiplication and division review, you will be all set to go with the click of a print button. If you are introducing multiplication, these engaging and simply written word problems are everything you need for practicing single digit multi

Your students will never mix up rows and columns ever again after completing this real world math project. First they build arrays for multiplication, then draw a model, and last connect multiplication expressions to what they made. All you need to do it print and provide some basic counters as movie theater seats. Students are asked to become builders and designers as they make movie theaters! This is an in-depth look at arrays and the conceptual understanding behind multiplication. This is

Teachers are always looking for what to do with students in need of enrichment, which is why my first set of open ended problems became an overnight best seller. Here is set 2! All you need to do is print these amazingly fun problems, and your students will love to solve them. Not only are they great for fast finishers, but these problems also will help prepare ALL of your students for your state testing. The preview contains a free sample of one of the problems, Sleepover Shenanigans. It took

In this short unit students will use real world math by working within a budget, adding decimals and then creating a theme for their proposed party. Using the attached budget sheet, flyers from the grocery store and a little cash upfront from you (or from your students), students create the best party that they can with the limitations they have. This is a perfect end of the year project! In this motivating problem-solving math project, students brainstorm their ideas, research and plan the cos

Get your fast finisher or enrichment students what they need with the click of your print button. Answer that dreaded question "What do I do when I'm done?" with this resource. This self paced real world math project is perfect for your RTI groups that need enrichment to free you up to work with your most struggling students. This math project will give your fast finisher elementary students a taste of real world math in the form of a performance task to practice: calculating money, elapsed tim

Deepen your student's understanding of two by one digit and two by two digit multiplication with these true false puzzles that feature area model, arrays, partial product and that standard algorithm. These puzzles can just be printed and handed out to students to get started. Check out the preview to try a free one. This is the second in the multiplication series. After learning about the meaning of multiplication in the first set, students will be ready to move on to both single and double dig

This resource is here to help students engage in math talk, practice for the SBAC, PARCC or other standardized tests, and to work through the Standards for Mathematical Practice. In this activity, students decide for themselves whether six statements are true/false about a given puzzle. You can then have them engage in math talk to defend their thinking, and critique the reasoning of others. This one in the series is focused on addition and subtraction problems. Why work on reasoning activities

An architect firm would like to hire your students! In this math project students design a one room space of their choice to learn how to calculate area to estimate flooring needs. They are paid for their designs and can be hired on for more! These lessons are an in depth math project that can been used for a small group of gifted 2nd graders, a whole class of 3rd graders (there are MANY common core state standards for area in third grade), or as a reinforcing/review project for 4th graders.

This resource is here to help students engage in math talk, practice for the SBAC, PARCC or other standardized tests, and to work through the Standards for Mathematical Practice. In this activity, students decide for themselves whether six statements are true/false about a given puzzle. You can then have them engage in math talk to defend their thinking, and critique the reasoning of others. Why work on reasoning activities? The Standards for Mathematical Practice put a focus on the thinking